Charles Murray: 'Progressive' Mindset Paved the Way for Obama

Liberals are now calling themselves progressives because it sounds better — but the new moniker is misleading, according to Charles Murray, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

"The left picked up the word progressive recently because 'liberal' got them such bad repute in the 1970's and 80's, they didn't want to be called liberals. They started calling themselves progressives because that sounded better,'' Murray told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
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"Here's the problem, the actual progressive tradition, which goes back to the beginning of the 20th century was one which that you wanted experts running the economy and the country, you wanted a strong figure in the presidency, the constitution was outmoded, [and] the collective is more important than the individual.''

He believes President Barack Obama fits the definition.

"I have been dismayed because [when] he ran, he said all the right things that made him sound like a liberal in the good sense that I am using the term,'' Murray said.

"He is, as far as I am concerned, a hardcore progressive and he's one of the worst kind in the following sense. There's a certain group on the left that say, 'We're not ideological, we're just smart and so we see what the truth is and we just go where the data and where the evidence takes us.'

"That is classic progressive attitude: Experts who understand the world. They're right and everybody else needs to be re-educated.''